China mobilizes military, on 'high alert' over N. Korea threats

China has started mobilizing military forces around the Korean peninsula in response to rising tensions that follow recent threats by North Korea to launch missile attacks against its southern neighbor and the United States.

According to US officials, Pyongyang’s declaration of a ‘state
of war’ against South Korea has led to the Chinese People’s
Liberation Army (PLA) to increase its military presence on the
border with the North. The officials say the process has been going
on since mid-March, and includes troop movements and readying
fighter jets. The PLA is now at ‘Level One’ readiness, its
highest.

Chinese forces, including tanks and armored personnel carriers,
have been spotted in the city of Ji’an and near the Yalu River,
which splits China and North Korea. Other border regions were also
reportedly being patrolled by planes.

China has also been conducting live-firing naval exercises in the
Yellow Sea, scheduled to end on Monday. The move is widely viewed
as open support for North Korea, which continues to show extreme
opposition to the US-South Korean military drills that are to last
until May.

Meanwhile, North Korea has been mobilizing its short and
medium-range missile arsenal, according to analyses of satellite
imagery. Officials say Pyongyang is set to test its new KN-08
medium-range mobile missile; they say preparations have been
spotted in the past. Pyongyang claims that since March 26, its
forces have been placed on their highest possible status of
alert.

Although officials believe Pyongyang will not provoke Seoul during
the war games, they also fear that a miscalculation by South Korea
could lead to all-out war, following its promise of retaliation
against the North, should it launch its missiles first.

North Korea and China have maintained a long-standing defense
treaty under which Beijing is to come to Pyongyang’s aid in the
event of an attack. The last time this was put into practice was
during the Korean War, when tens of thousands of Chinese volunteer
forces were deployed on the Korean Peninsula. The relationship
between the two countries is often referred to as being “as
close as lips and teeth” by Chinese military spokesmen.

Despite the heated tensions leading to an apparent disruption in
trade and commerce between China and North Korea, the two are
already making future plans to bolster their economic ties. March
27 saw the announcement of a new high-speed railway, as well as a
special highway passenger line.

Still, many in Chinese circles have shown displeasure at
Pyongyang’s seemingly aggressive relationship with Seoul and
Washington. A Chinese official, speaking to Reuters on condition of
anonymity, has testified that US presence in the region is a
helpful restraint against an unpredictable Kim Jong-un, which many
believe to be the real reason Beijing has not been strong in its
criticism of the amassing of US forces in the region.

Furthermore, Chinese websites and blogs could sometimes be found
openly bashing the North Korean leader for an apparent mishandling
of the situation in the region, playing diplomatic games amid
chronic food shortages in his country. An editor at the country’s
Study Times newspaper was recently suspended for openly criticizing
China for abandoning North Korea.

Expert opinion differs on what China’s exact position is in the
unfolding regional crisis.

US officials claim the China’s main fear is a collapse of order
in North Korea, which would lead to a large-scale refugee flow into
China.

Another possible reason for China to worry is advanced by
journalist James Corbett, host of the Corbett Report, who believes
that foreign military presence in the region is just as unnerving
to China as it is to Pyongyang. He discussed this in the light of
the latest war drills.

“I think that this has the possibility of ratcheting things
up to the point where tensions might actually spill over as a
result of this, and we saw that recently with the deployment of B-2
nuclear armed bombers in South Korea which is not only, I think,
worrying to Pyongyang, but also to China, to have nuclear bombers
that close to the peninsula there, on China’s southern border. I
think that China wouldn’t be pleased with that either, so this is
quite an escalation that’s taking place.”

Others believe openly that the US strategy is geared not towards
the destabilization of North Korea, but that of China. Li Jie, an
expert with a Chinese navy research institution, has told Reuters
that “the ultimate strategic aim is to contain and blockade
China, to distract China's attention and slow its development. What
the US is most worried about is the further development of China's
economy and military strength."

Retired Major General Luo Yuan, who is one of China’s foremost
military authorities, believes, however that "once the joint
US-South Korean exercises have finished and with birthday
celebrations for (late founder of North Korea) Kim Il-sung
imminent, the temperature will gradually cool and get back to the
status quo of no war, no unification."

While it has been urging calm and peace in the region, Beijing
has been very obliging at the UN Security Council, when it helped
push through the latest round of sanctions against North Korea in
March, following its third nuclear test the previous month. Despite
being Pyongyang’s greatest ally in the region, some experts believe
this is a sign of Beijing’s growing impatience. American diplomat
Christopher R. Hill, who helped under the Bush administration to
negotiate a deal for the dismantling of North Korea’s nuclear
facilities (which didn’t last), says that the Chinese strategy
is“not about the words, it is about the music.”

The resolution came hours after North Korea, angered at both the
US-South Korean war games, and at the proposed UN plan, threatened
pre-emptive nuclear action against the South and US military bases
in the region.

This latest standoff between North and South Korea and the US is
credited to have started on February 12, when Pyongyang supposedly
performed its latest underground nuclear weapons test. Just this
weekend, North Korea vowed to boost its nuclear arsenal, calling it
a “treasure of a reunified country” which it would never
trade for anything, even “billions of dollars” worth of
aid.